Thank You
by nikkiRA
Summary: Oneshot, Blackwater/ For a moment, Leah wonders if maybe she had misread the signs. If maybe she was wrong. If maybe she had been merely seeing what she wanted to see, and not what was really there.


**Nothing own I. Own nothing I. Nothing I own. I own nothing. Own I nothing. I nothing own. Do you get the point?**

**For clarification, this is Breaking Dawn compliant minus Nessie. Simply because I'm too lazy to incorporate her.**

* * *

The forest crunches under his bare feet, but he doesn't notice anything- not the leaves, or the stones, or the sticks digging into the bottoms of his feet, nor the many animals watching him. He's on a mission, and he's determined to complete it.

Sam Uley is storming through the forest because he needs to find Jacob Black.

It's difficult, no longer being connected to him. Well, he's still connected to Jacob, as both of them are alpha's, but it would be so much easier if they were _all_ connected. It would be much quicker, and it would take much less effort. None of this split pack bullshit. Not that what Jacob has can even be called a pack.

He'll have to phase soon, use his wolf instincts to find out where he is. He checked his house first, but Billy had said he'd left to run a while ago, which means that he could be _anywhere._ Sam doesn't want to phase, however, because then he'd be connected to the rest of the pack. And he doesn't want anyone to know what he's doing.

Stopping, he's just about to strip off his clothes when he hears something. Leaves rustling. He re-buttons his shirt, starting to where he heard the sound. Coming into a small clearing, he finally sees Jacob, who looks like he has just woken up from a nap.

"Jacob!" He barks, using his alpha voice, even if he knows it will have no effect on Jacob, even if he had been a wolf. Jacob looks up in surprise.

"Sam. What are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you." That's the way Sam is- quick and to the point. Jacob nods and stands up.

"What's up?"

Sam brings himself up to full height. The fact the Jacob is taller then him always miffs him greatly.

"It's about Leah."

Her name immediately sends Jacob worrying.

"Leah? What's wrong with her?"

Instead of touched, Sam is annoyed. The friendship that has sprung up between them is something Sam doesn't like, and that's why he's there.

"Nothing's wrong with her. Not yet." Jake just simply stares at him in confusion. Sam takes a deep breath. He isn't going to let anyone- let alone Jacob Black- make him feel intimidated. "You're going to hurt her, Jacob."

Jacob's face immediately clouds over. Sam tenses himself for a fight.

"I beg your pardon?" Jacob's voice is low and deadly.

"You're going to hurt her. One day, you're going to imprint on somebody and you're going to hurt her."

"Leah and I aren't together, Sam."

"Not yet." Sam knows Leah, knows the way she walks and swishes her hair and how her smiles, so few and far between, can dazzle you. She could get anyone she wanted, and he has a feeling she wants Jacob Black now.

"And so what? Who cares if we get together? I'd be good for her. I could help her."

"No, you couldn't. You'd just hurt her even more."

"Why the hell do you care, Uley?" Jacob is angry, but Sam doesn't back down.

"Because I don't want her to get hurt."

Jacob snorts. "You're a fucking hypocrite, Sam."

Anger flares in Sam and he clenches his fists, digging his nails in his palms. He doesn't want to fight until he has said everything. "It's not _my_ fault she keeps dwelling on things that happened in the past-"

"Shut the hell up, Uley! She doesn't dwell on things in the past, she dwells on things in the future. Like how you can't stand to be around her, how much you hate her and how you won't even try to pretend that you don't. How you would resort to anything to keep things the way they were, even calling her stupid pet names that just bring back memories she doesn't want to have. How you fawn over Emily even when she's in the room. It's _those_ things she dwells on, Sam, not the things you did. It's the things you _do_. Do you have any idea what you're doing to her, _still?_" Jacob's voice is low in anger, but still Sam doesn't step away. He holds his ground, refusing to concentrate on anything Jacob has said.

"You're going to hurt her, Black." He repeats, watching for anything in Jacob's eyes that might prove his point.

"No, I'm not. Because let me tell you something, Sam. There are two things that will stop that from happening. The first is that Leah is numb now, and that's your entire fault. She doesn't allow herself to feel. The second is that even if I did imprint, I would never do to Leah what you did to her. I would never just leave her; never skip off into the sunset towards my happy ending while she's left behind. I'm not you, Sam."

"You wouldn't have a _choice_, Jacob!"

"How do you know? You just accepted the fact that you were supposed to be with Emily, never giving anything else a second thought. How do you know imprinting is really what it is? You just accepted, never questioned."

"What the hell was I supposed to question, Black? The minute I saw Emily, I couldn't look away. You expect me to leave that behind because I made Leah a promise, a silly, school boy promise?"

"Maybe not. But you could have done it a little nicer, a litter gentler, instead of dropping her like a hot potato, so anxious to be rid of her. You've made her what she is, Sam."

"Maybe so, Jacob. But you'll be the one to kill her."

Jacob lunges so quickly Sam doesn't even see it coming.

* * *

He jumps up the steps, turns around, makes it halfway to the road, turns back, walks up to the door and raises his hand to knock, turns around and then around again, finally knocking on the door and feeling a little dizzy.

She opens quickly, as if expecting someone, and her face falls when she sees him.

"What are you doing here?" She asks monotonously, and he bites down the sarcastic comment threatening to spill from his mouth, because knowing her she would attack him.

"I wanted to talk to you. Can I come in?" She looks at him long and hard, trying to see through him, before finally opening the door wider and stepping aside.

She doesn't ask him about the scratches on his face or arms- doesn't ask how he got them, or whether he's okay. The marks of the fight with Jacob (Jacob won, and he tries not to dwell on that fact) will be long gone in a few hours, but it's more then that. She just doesn't care.

Leah's house looks the same as it did two years ago, three years ago, four years ago, the only difference the pictures on the mantle and Leah herself. Her hair is shorter, she's taller, not quite as cute and much sexier, but she's colder, to him especially. She sits down at the counter and crosses her arms over her chest, looking at him wearily.

"What are you doing here?" She asks again, her face a mask. He takes in a breath, regretting the decision to come here. What had he been thinking?

"I wanted to talk to you," he says, and he sees her roll her eyes.

"Clearly, Sam. What do you want?"

Her coldness is worse then he imagined, and he stands up to full height, like he did with Jacob. But Leah intimidates him in a much different way, and he hates to admit it.

"Listen Leah, I just want to know… are you okay?"

She blinks in confusion, and Sam is triumphant as he sees emotion break through her carefully kept façade.

"What?"

"It's just… are you okay? And answer truthfully."

She blinks again. "Why the fuck do you care?" She asks him angrily.

"Because Leah. I don't… I don't like seeing you like this. So… sad."

Her nostrils flare. "You don't like seeing me sad?" She says, and it sounds much more pitiful repeated back at him.

"Well… yes."

Standing there in front of her, he's feeling less and less like an Alpha.

"Sam."

"Yes?"

"Get. The fuck. Out of. My house."

"I will, Leah, I will, it's just… I'm sorry."

She laughs, which he hadn't counted on.

"You're _sorry?_"

"Yes. For everything." He apologizes for everything in that one word, sorry. Thinking back at what Jacob said, he wonders if that will cut it.

"Too little, too late, Sam," she says softly, before once again telling him to leave. He does, feeling very discouraged. His mission, ultimately, had failed. He hadn't gotten Jacob away from her- hadn't smoothed things over with her.

Sam wonders how exactly she can still have this effect on him even when things are done between them.

Looking back at her house, Sam wonders if things are really done between them.

* * *

It rains that night, but she goes to see him anyway. By the time she gets there, she's soaking wet, her hair plastered to her face and her shirt nearly see through. She didn't plan it that way, but she's pleased with the result.

He opens the door even though it's late when she comes, looking down at her in confusion, then surprise, then worry.

"What are you doing? What's wrong?"

She shakes her head, flecks of water spraying everywhere.

"Nothing," she replies, pushing past him and into the house. She sits down in the kitchen, pushing her wet hair out of her face.

"You're getting everything all wet," he complains quietly. Billy must be sleeping, she thinks.

She just shrugs.

"Why are you here, Leah? I mean, it's pretty late…"

She sits up straight, looking at him hard.

"Sam came to see me today."

He blinks, surprised. He hadn't been expecting that. She stands up, walks over to the fridge, fiddles around with the magnets decorating it.

"He asked me if I was okay. Said he didn't like seeing me so sad. Apologized."

"Sam?" He asks, stunned. She nods, turns to him, her eyes blazing. She knows, of course- didn't take a genius to figure it out, to link the marks on Sam's arms and face to his pitiful attempt at an apology.

"You were the only one who could ever take Sam in a fight," she says softly. He looks at her strangely.

"I hope you don't expect me to say thank you," she says, louder this time, glaring at him. He laughs at her.

"Oh Leah. I never do."

And then they're still, staring at each other.

For a moment, Leah wonders if maybe she had misread the signs. If maybe she was wrong. If maybe she had been merely seeing what she wanted to see, and not what was really there.

Then he comes at her, his lips mashing onto hers, and she knows that she was right. She's always right.

* * *

Sam tries to convince himself that he's won.

While they're celebrating their new found love, Sam holds Emily tight to him, kissing her everywhere and revelling in the woman who had been made for him. Emily was constructed for him- he was moulded for her. Jacob and Leah are risky, liable to break apart at any moment. But Emily and him? That's forever.

Sam tries to convince himself that he's won, but truthfully, he's just not sure.


End file.
